During our last debate, an audience member asked Mark Krikorian if his arguments for restricting immigration of foreigners were also arguments for restricting the child-bearing of natives. You might think that Mark would insist that native babies are somehow better than foreign adults. How hard could it possibly be to craft such an argument? However, Mark adamantly refused to compare the worths of different kinds of people. Instead, he informed the questioner that his question was based on a “category error.”
Category: Economics and Liberty
Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty: The New Republic
I’ve been waiting to read the fifth volume of Murray Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty for over 30 years. Now my former student Patrick Newman, professor at Florida Southern College, has miraculously undeleted this “lost work.” Patrick’s quasi-archaeological efforts are nothing short of amazing, but how does the actual book hold up?
Immigration vs. Social Desirability Bias
No matter how awful their country is, people love to proclaim their undying devotion to folk and land. Why then have hundreds of millions of people left their countries of birth? Because the migrants don’t literally believe this flowery talk. Though almost everyone voices these sentiments, actions speak louder than words.
What I’m Doing
Most smart people aren’t doing what I’m doing. Shouldn’t I be worried? Only slightly. Even smart people are prone to herding and hysteria. I’ve now spent three months listening to smart defenders of the conventional view. Their herding and hysteria are hard to miss. Granted, non-smart contrarians sound even worse. But smart contrarians make the most sense of all.
What I’m Thinking
1. Getting people to be rational about politics is an uphill battle during the best of times. During a global hysteria, it’s hopeless. 2. Due to this doleful realization, I refrained from discussing the lockdown when it first emerged. The best course, I deemed, was to wait for readers to simmer down. 3. Since many have now simmered down, here’s what I was thinking three months ago.
Too Terrified to Talk About It
In absolute terms, most people remain terrified of coronavirus, so it’s hardly surprising that sexual harassment worries them less. The fact that sexual harassment accusations actually worry the average respondent even more than coronavirus, however, suggests that most workers really are living in fear during normal times.
Social Anxiety, #MeToo, and COVID-19
The last two months, I’ve spent many extra hours walking and biking. Encountering other people outdoors – and watching all parties avoid each other like lepers – is an eerie experience. Few human societies have ever made severe social anxiety so blatant. Viewing strangers with fear is the new normal.
How Lockdowns Matter
People are taking many precautions voluntarily; but many other behavioral changes hinge on coercion and subsidies, especially after a few weeks of going corona-crazy.
Reflections on the Krikorian-Caplan Soho Forum Debate
Thanks again to Gene Epstein and Reason for sponsoring last week’s immigration debate between myself and Mark Krikorian. Thanks to Mark, too, for debating before an unsympathetic audience. The resolution, you may recall, was: The current pandemic makes it all the more necessary for the federal government to tighten restrictions on immigration. Here are my extra thoughts on the exchange.
What We Would Now Know, If Demagogues Didn’t Rule Every Country on Earth
About six months after the rise of COVID-19, humanity still doesn’t know the answers to a long list of critical questions. Yet amazingly, we have a straightforward and ethically unimpeachable way to decisively answer all of these questions – and countless more. The method is: paid voluntary human experimentation.